Now, he was in a coma, and she had become his wife. She had no qualms about taking care of him for the rest of her life to repay her debt.
At this moment, Mu Mingtang was no longer afraid. This was her savior, her hero, not a murderer or a madman. She stood up and looked around, contemplating what she should do next.
The Yulin Pavilion was large but hadn’t been attended to in many years, so the entire place was covered in dust. The curtains, in particular, were not only filthy but also blocked the light outside from coming in. It was such a dreary atmosphere. Without hesitation, Mu Mingtang immediately walked to the curtains and tied them to the pillars, allowing the room to be flooded with light.
After that, she went outside and filled a bucket with cold water to wash Xie Xuanchen’s face with. He had been in a coma for a long time. While there were trained servants responsible for preparing his meals and taking care of his health, how could those rough military soldiers outside know how to look after a comatose patient? Providing basic care was no problem, but there were dried bloodstains all over his face and body.
Since she had taken care of Granny Zhou throughout her illness, Mu Mingtang was experienced with how to take care of a patient. Fortunately, while the soldiers outside refrained from getting close to her and forbade her from going out, they didn’t dare to disobey her orders. She told them to fetch her a bucket of hot water, and after a while, one of them brought it to the entrance of the Yulin Pavilion before returning to his post.
… Okay, so she had to carry it in herself. When she was a refugee, she had done all kinds of work in order to earn money. Carrying a bucket of water was nothing. She brought it to Xie Xuanchen’s inner bedchamber and carefully combined the water from both buckets inside a washbasin to adjust the temperature, then she took out her a handkerchief and soaked it in the water. After wringing out the excess, she knelt down by the bed and carefully wiped his entire face
Then, she cleaned the handkerchief again and began to work on the hard, black bloodstains caked on his face. She didn’t dare to think whose blood it was.
From the proximity she was at, Mu Mingtang couldn’t help but notice how beautiful yet emaciated Xie Xuechen looked. His skin was glaringly white, most likely due to the lack of sun over the years, while his cheeks were hollowed. However, his brow ridge was high, his eyelashes long, the bridge of his nose tall and straight, and his bloodless lips thin.
“The famous Prince of Qiyang is actually so much more beautiful than the pretty boys outside who rely on their faces to get by,” she sighed heartily. She took out a new handkerchief, soaked it in the water, and prepared to wipe the pretty boy’s—ah, no, the Prince of Qiyang’s, arms and legs.
As for undressing, she didn’t have the guts yet.
When Mu Mingtang climbed onto the bed and pulled back the blanket, she was so surprised by the chains she saw shackled around his wrists that she gasped and immediately flung the rest of the blanket away. There, on his feet, were more chains.
They were pitch-black in color and looked cold and heavy. And they were on a patient’s body.
He was so weak now, his wrists were so thin, and yet they had put these chains on him?
Mu Mingtang couldn’t stop her eyes from reddening with tears, and she cried out, “Why are they treating you like this? You are the hero who saved Xiangyang. Now you’re sick and bedridden, yet they’re treating you like a prisoner!”
The wounds on his wrists were shocking. He seemed to have wanted to escape from these chains countless times, but without any strength in his body or the key to unlock it, he was forced to use brute force and caused many injuries on his wrists. Some of them had formed scabs and were stuck to the fabric of the bedding beneath his body.
Seeing this, Mu Mingtang wanted to help him tear away the fabric stuck to his wounds, but she was afraid that doing so would hurt him. Therefore, she could only patiently moisten the scabs with a handkerchief until the blood went away little by little.
Perhaps it hurt him, or perhaps the uncovering of his chains had touched his bottom line, but Xie Xuanchen’s suddenly moved. Mu Mingtang fell back in surprise and said, “Don’t kill me!” However, there was no more movement from the young man. After a while, she carefully approached him again.
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